Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments

(RISE) grants challenge

With support from the RISE grants challenge, five projects across Central America, Eastern and Southern Africa and Southeast Asia are addressing gender-based violence in the environment sector. Scroll down to meet the new winners!

Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments

The new RISE 2023 call for proposals is now open!

RISE grants challenge

About the RISE grants challenge

Addressing gender-based violence and environment links

The Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments (RISE) grants challenge is the first-of-its-kind to address gender-based violence (GBV) in environment contexts and climate-related sectors. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), RISE is a direct response to key research findings by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on gender-based violence and environment linkages. Gender-based violence is used across environment sectors to assert control over land and natural resources and can be exacerbated in the context of degradation and biodiversity loss caused by climate change, extractive industries and environmental crimes; with women environmental human rights defenders experiencing targeted risks. Investment is urgently needed to implement solutions that address these serious risks, fill critical knowledge, facilitate cooperation and catalyze investment in this nexus. USAID and IUCN’s partnership through the RISE grants challenge directly addresses these key international development priorities.

Why RISE?

Building community

Winners of the RISE grants challenge contribute new learning to the global community on how to include gender-based violence considerations and prevention measures within environment programming. RISE grantees have their work featured by the Gender-Based Violence and Environment Linkages Center (GBV-ENV Center), access networking opportunities, and receive technical assistance to support the proposed activity in achieving measurable results and impacts.

In natural resources sectors and contexts, preventing and addressing GBV is critical for healthy and sustainable environments as well as for realizing women’s empowerment and gender equality outcomes. The RISE grants challenge uniquely identifies and implements interventions to reduce and prevent GBV in environmental programming and environment-related projects.

The application window for the RISE grants challenge is currently closed.

Shared learning

Building knowledge. Informing action.

Inspired by and grounded in the evidence base built by IUCN under its AGENT partnership with USAID, the RISE Challenge projects are now generating new information and learning that help enrich the knowledge base on GBV-environment linkages. Scroll down to learn more.

Meet the new grantees!

In celebration of International Mother Earth Day 2023, IUCN and USAID announced the five winners of the 2022 RISE grants challenge on 18 April 2023, in Washington, DC. With support from the RISE grants challenge, five projects across Central America, Eastern and Southern Africa and Southeast Asia are addressing gender-based violence in the context of environmental conservation, resource use in climate-vulnerable settings and the protection of Indigenous women environmental human rights defenders. Slide to meet the new winners!

Prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence in the conservation, sustainable management and governance of coastal tourism landscapes

Mexico

Preventing and mitigating gender-based violence to improve access, benefits and control of fisheries resources

Zambia

Empowering Indigenous women environmental human rights defenders to fight Gender-Based Violence

Thailand, Indonesia & The Philippines

Advancing equitable social, gender, and power norms in climate vulnerable community conservancies context

Kenya

Addressing gender-based violence barriers to women’s participation in community protected area management

Cambodia

Meet the previous grantees

Meet the past nine winners of USAID’s RISE grants challenge. These projects did critical work in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiji, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam. The activities were designed to address GBV in environmental contexts and generated learning and evidence on promising interventions. Read the RISE Challenge Report 2019-2022 for more on impacts and lessons learnt.

Tz’unun: Ending Environmental Violence Against Indigenous Women in Guatemala through Empowerment in Community Forestry, Agroecology, and Collective Healing Spaces

Guatemala

| 2020

Securing Land Rights and Ending Gender Exclusion Project

Uganda

| 2020

Rising Up! Promoting Congolese Women’s Land Access and Preventing GBV in Eastern DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

| 2019

Resource-ful Empowerment: Elevating Women’s Voices for Human and Environmental Protection in Congolese Small-Scale Mining

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

| 2021

A collaborative effort of impact

The 2020-2021 the RISE grants challenge winners are supported to incentivize organizations to adapt and implement promising or proven practices that have been used to effectively prevent and respond to GBV in other sectors to environmental programming.

These rounds of the RISE grants challenge draw insights from other development and humanitarian sectors that have proven or promising practices to address GBV. It spurs partnerships between environmental organizations, local communities, indigenous peoples organizations, and gender and GBV experts who can help bridge knowledge gaps and work to build an evidence base of effective GBV interventions. Under AGENT, IUCN provides targeted and specific technical support while distilling and sharing experiences from RISE to inform environmental programming.

Starting now, in 2022, IUCN is running a new call for proposals under AGENT and the GBV-ENV Center.

Stories on how we RISE together

RISE grantees are exploring approaches to address gender-based violence and environment linkages in environment-related programming, ushering learning along the way. Navigate to explore stories from RISE grantees about views and experiences:

Profiles for Change – Reama Naco and Ulai Baya

In Fiji, Reama Naco and Ulai Baya have been instrumental in the development of the first-ever government-supported Feedback, Grievance, and Redress Mechanism addressing gender-based risks (FGRM+) within a national Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program. Hear from them on why GBV is important in climate action.

Web Story

Worthy of dignity and safety

In the first-ever IUCN World Conservation Congress thematic session focused on understanding and addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in relation to environmental issues and threats such as climate change, member organizations discussed the steps they are taking to safeguard staff, partners and beneficiaries; tackle discriminatory norms that allow for or employ violence; and cooperate across sectors to better advance rights-based gender-responsive programming and results.

Event,Web Story

Protecting people and biodiversity: Addressing gender-based violence (GBV) and conservation links

In Kenya and Peru, IUCN Members are working with local partners through the USAID Resilient, Inclusive & Sustainable Environments (RISE) Challenge to address GBV in environment-related programming. See a short story on how Conservation International, PROMSEX, Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association, Fauna & Flora International, and others are taking action to protect people and biodiversity.

Blog

Security for Me and My Own: Land Demarcation and Preventing Gender-Based Violence in Uganda

In eastern Uganda, where land is governed by a customary land tenure system, women experience violence when claiming land rights. Trocaire is working with the Land Equity Movement of Uganda (LEMU) and Soroti Catholic Diocese Integrated Development Organization (SOCADIDO) to respond to these challenges.

Web Story

Profiles for change: Trang Nguyen, WildAct

Meet Trang Nguyen, the Founder and Executive Director of WildAct, Vietnam. Trang is leading a RISE grant-winning project and shares insights on why she is passionate about ending harassment in conservation workplaces.

Blog

A Place to Call Her Own: Land titling and gender-based violence in South Kivu, DRC

In South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Women for Women International and the Innovation and Training for Development and Peace are working together to gather the perspectives of 138 women, as well as male and female focus groups to change land rights norms.

Web Story

News

Every quarter, the Gender-Based Violence and Environment Linkages Center (GBV-ENV Center) publishes a bulletin with the latest news and resources – including RISE updates. Please be sure to sign up to get up-to-the minute details, and you can view previous mailers here:

You can read the current bulletin here!

To ensure you get up-to-the minute details, please sign up for news updates.

Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments